the u.s. is warning the latest fierce battles in syria will be a nail in the coffin of president assad as we report on how youngsters are being increasingly drawn into the bloody conflict on both sides. rocking with the reverberations members of a russian punk band go on trial facing seven years in jail for a protest stand in a church is ultimately a case that continues to divide russian society. a campaign promise that goes under barack obama spends billions to prosecute whistleblowers showing the u.s. government is as opaque as ever. it's

good to have you with us here on our to today. live in moscow the u.s. military chief says the fighting in syria's largest city of aleppo will ultimately be quote a nail in president assad's coffin leon panetta is currently on a tour of the middle east promising to continue to push for the departure of assad the commercial hub of aleppo has been the scene of fierce battles between syrian regime troops and antigovernment forces for more than a week now both parties view the fighting as decisive and likely to define the country's fate with the u.s. and its allies are slowly condemning president assad for the civil conflict the standoff is getting more violent on both sides and authorities oksana boyko reports now seeing more and more youngsters getting involved. young minds burning hearts

bad blood while the syrian conflict often comes across as a power struggle of grown man on the ground many of those who fight and die are in their late teens early twenty's. this group of f.s.a. snipers operates in a deserted town forty kilometers southwest of homes twice a day to god to shell a syrian army checkpoint nearby omar's twenty three he left his family in dubai to join the uprising. to support the young fighters and to feel their pain and to experience what very experiencing on the ground and to help with the operation. while their weapons are becoming more sophisticated if you are good at handling them most say they want to become martyrs and their dads help recruit their younger brothers. but those they're aiming at are not much older but a military hospital in damascus

a week long supply of coffins has been used in the past in forty eight hours while the syrian authorities do you know it really is military just so all indications are that over the past few months it has increased dramatically here in damascus main military hospital soldiers and officers just the last two days. and the beginning of the uprising the soldiers were laid to rest to the sounds of a solemn march but if you days ago a military band was ambushed now the burials are conducted in silence and then broke nineteen year old he is an army conscript who is tasked with putting bodies into conference he was working in his uncle small shop in aleppo before being drafted a year ago. no i'm not afraid to die i would do all that to be in the place of my fallen comrades and to become a martyr defending my country it's every man's duty. another nineteen year old lies in a coffin just a few steps away he was the victim of

a sniper near homs but unlike many in syria his father and uncle are not calling for revenge. we just want peace. jesus all the profit schools for peace we need it. martyrdom has long been glorified in muslim countries but it's also one of the reasons why the conflict in syria has been so protracted and sold deadly when the youngsters profess readiness to die for their cause they usually even more ready to kill for it. r.t. damascus syria and oksana is constantly following the developments in the syrian conflict from deep inside the country but she is sharing her firsthand experience of video twitter feeds. and images from the conflict zone all being lined up there of course of more news on syria and other developing stories just check out our general story. now the syrian opposition is art its foreign allies to provide

heavy weapons to fight president assad but author journalist afshin rattansi thinks the flow of arms into the rebels' hands could have dire international consequences . call for weapons that some from the syrian national council have been making in abu dhabi this is this is getting worse and worse and the blowback for these countries that are aiding already aiding the islamist fighters is astounding i mean as far as i understand it parts of northern syria are already in the control of the control of goods they call it western kurdistan parts of northern syria but i think the turkish authorities will be happy with that for the blowback for the united states last time they went around doing this alarming these jihadists sending special forces and so forth we got september the eleventh two thousand and one and the attacks on the world trade center in the pentagon the white house oil the saudis are obviously on the contrary as are overseas sending in their arms across the border is interesting that saudi arabia is also having problems at home i don't

think you'll see the mainstream media want to cover problems in saudi arabia that oil superpower in the oil rich east of the country they will no doubt get the arms and i notice that the syrian foreign minister being over in tehran and already the american press talking about syria's w m d and and the chemical weapons i don't think this time around the west are going to intervene using their armies they're going to they're going to go the proxy way they did in afghanistan. you're watching on t.v. live from moscow still ahead for you in the program or romanian president who survives a second pietschmann to attempt despite the large majority wanted him out of office for supporting rounds of harsh austerity shows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. the u.k. tops the list of countries most exposed to the climb in the euro find out why in the business update shortly. when there was

a music performance that split russian society and could land three members of a female punk band in jail for up to seven years three feminist rockers from pussy riot have gone on trial here in moscow for staging an antigovernment punk in the capital's main cathedral lot to surface right outside the court for us joins us now live on the program sir good to see you the cases we've been seeing here in r.t. it's really divided public opinion in russia and certainly has been resonating abroad just tell us what exactly are the girls accused of and why has there been such a reaction. well the trial is now underway for the three girls from the provocatively named pussy riot this comes also the high profile stunt back in february where they performed a protest in the center of quite the state give kids the drill now again widespread recognition on the internet that it calls outrage amongst the religious community even. calling it blasphemy now they stand accused of hooliganism motivated by

religious hatred. other girls have pleaded not guilty to these charges because he said if the found guilty they could face up to seven years in prison now. paying that they were protesting against the cool from the religious leaders the supports of the now president putin and of course it occurred during that widespread place we saw at the beginning of the year. as he said it has cooled a lot of the fans amongst the religious community with people here saying that it was incredibly disrespectful and should indeed be punished in this way not the supporters of the group have maintained that this is because political a bit. this is simply a case of the government cracking down on any types of opposition in this sort of form say it is as you said a very very polarizing case and it's cool the eyes of the international community they're going to be watching very very closely the girl's house he said not on used

to this type of scandal they performed high profile stunts like this in the past that was video clips of the clip in the museum here most scary another of them kissing female police offices again they maintain this is political motivated this is that their artistic expression and again the supporters say this isn't something that should be punished in this way it's far too heavy handed in the page and indeed this high profile stunt already calling it a very high profile personal calls to the girls but of course the trial continues well certainly sara as you were saying this certainly has gone the attention it worldwide that is no exaggeration we've been having a look at the global newspapers all around the world yup they're getting the attention would seem according to some they're so desperate to get serafin thank you. well i mean time prime minister dmitri medvedev he has his opinion of pussy riot he talks about them in an interview with the u.k. the times newspaper you can find out all about the daughter. plus discover how

intervention in libya last year is impacting russia's stance on the crisis in syria as well as many of the old song delivery games and how sochi can prepare for twenty fourteen. plus masses amounts of empty seats in london it's members of the so-called lympics family feeling the heat with organizers going to great lengths even pulling children out of schools to feel them. boy find out more about some top couple. if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be shown to accept casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a born a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what destroys their own safety all foreign nationals

including journalists and inspectors should leave. and it's clear what happens with such witnesses i got it on my site. many checks. hirsch's shooting on our t.v. .

he. made a promise that if he was elected president he would make the u.s. government more transparent. in the process. keeping government secrets is expensive business according to america's information security office last year

the us spent around thirteen billion dollars on classifications that's twice as much as it spends ten years ago and more than the entire budget of the country's environmental protection agency for instance the us government keeps way too many secrets here and even government entities responsible for evaluating these things like the office for government information oversight. these officers have may have done studies and said well you know a lot of this material doesn't need to be protected so it's in many ways it's a huge waste of money u.s. security agencies regularly fight in courts to keep volumes of decades old documents classified like the files on the cia's bay of pigs operation in cuba when the u.s. tried to overthrow fidel castro in one thousand nine hundred sixty one but the sharp increase in secrecy over the last decade is due to america's expanding counterterrorism programs rather than on classified historical files the power that

the national security state has acquired under president obama is greater than any time history. during the cold war period the government indicted only three people for disclosing classified information however the obama administration alone has prosecuted six government officials for leaking information to the press more than all other past administrations combined and thomas drake was one of them he was a senior executive of america's largest intelligence agency during the bush administration he blew the whistle on fraud and abuse with regards to the agency's secret surveillance program mr drake was charged under the espionage act much of what's happening now particular my case it set it extraordinarily chilling message that anybody who i was a senior executive the government had a very high position to say. it sends an extraordinarily chilling message that if you speak out if you speak up we're going to hammer you and we're going to hammer

you hard because look what we did to mr drake but after a public outcry last year the government dropped charges against thomas drake in exchange for him pleading guilty to a misdemeanor misuse of a government computer speaking truth to power is very dangerous in today's world the power elites. those in charge they don't like dirty linen being aired they don't like the skeletons in the closet being seen. and they not only do they object to it they decide to turn it into criminal activity national security german they say the government always has and always will leak information deliberately to advance their own interests and it's not at all leakers that they're after the primary. looking you know here is that the national security state is striking back is becoming much war repressive in regard to its response to

whistle blowing by you know individuals who. oppose policies that are carried out or who oppose simply abuses of power the obama administration is spending record amounts to keep its secrets coming down hard on leakers and yet thousands of classified documents are making their way onto the web the internet has taken leaks to a whole new level but it seems the more they are not reveals the more upset the government becomes about secrecy i'm going to check out in washington are to. some of the u.s. obviously trying to silence those speaking out and others marginalize anyone who doesn't agree with the mainstream politics later this hour here on our we speak to a doctor how it friedman who argues the american political system disregards the interests of the poorest people. i can't under estimate the impact of money on the american political system and in fact there's some interesting

analysis done by political scientists that showed that people from the top third of the economic class have a very strong voice in government people in the middle third have a weak voice in government and it showed that people in the bottom third of the economic group united states have no measurable influence that's a real challenge in american democracy is to make sure that we really are in a world of one person one vote instead of dollar equals vote. download new applications so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. t.v. is not required to watch on t.v. all you need is your mobile device more charting any time.

everyone wants to be pretty. whether they're an old lady engine driver. or it might be quite tricky to get a front seat. because you live around here in siberia. and the only way to get to you is by train. it's only twenty minutes past the hour moscow time this is our city and now romania's president has survived a referendum on his impeachment but he's doing it for the second time during his rule. could have been the latest e.u. leaders swept from office by the economic crisis and austerity measures demanded by international creditors but a low turnout invalidated the poll allowing him to remain in power. for australia has been following the story for us and become rest. initial exit polls have come

out on the remain a referendum vote on whether or not to impeach its suspended president of tryon of a cesspool while the numbers show that it failed to reach the a fifty percent plus one vote a requirement in order to validate that vote now something is a referendum is that the end of the three weeks of political bickering really between the center right of assessed and his rival center left her in the prime minister viktor on top of the system has been accused of cronyism as well as overstepping his powers as president denies any wrongdoing or that he had done anything on constitutional what's going to happen next is that the cesspool will be reinstated us presidents as soon as the final numbers come out and it indeed invalidates that referendum vote and let's not forget his popularity has gone down a drastically ever since he introduced us there the measures in two thousand and ten as a result of i.m.f. a back financial funding and this is certainly not going to be easy in a country that is very divided politically very tired of any political bickering

and again these two sides seem to show that they are not going to stop accusing the other side of any wrong to we were already hearing some scandals coming out again coming from want to side and they will have to figure out a way to work together you have assessed before to still maintaining positions as president and prime minister what romania nice now really is political stability especially for its european counterparts who are watching this very closely insisting that the country find a way to stabilize the situation and to exercise the prophecy the rule of law is still be a checks and balances in all the institutions. reporting that straight to southern india now to start off. its where at least forty seven of being killed and twenty eight injured enough on board a train flames were spotted those to train was passing through a station officials claim a short circuit could have been behind the blaze and it's well known that the country does have a real safety record it was back in may. a similar incident also claimed multiple

lives. hundreds of people have again protested against the recent fatal police shootings in anaheim california which are the last two people dead two hundred demonstrators rallied outside the city's police headquarters while one hundred others marched silently along the main thoroughfare at least nine arrested. us republican presidential candidate mitt romney embark on a world tour hoping to boost his profile and he's certainly been making some headlines after appearing to criticize the london olympics he's now in israel where he referred to the disputed city of jerusalem as the country's capital he also claimed jewish culture is more advanced than that of the palestinians of course that's provoked the wrath of palestinian officials who condemned his statements as racist and unacceptable. are switching gears over to money matters there's merino europe in

a state of shambles because people are still managing divide luxury goods that doesn't make any sense exactly was. that makes no sense whatsoever some because it's in spite of the fact that europe is in shambles now basically when we think about it all has to do the people that could afford to buy luxury goods before can still afford to buy them there and i'll talk about that in a second first i want to talk about the u.k. which has top the list of countries most exposed to the euro maple croft consultants have created this map which you're about to see which shows the nations the most unsafe nations and they will be shown in red you're about to see there they are now the top four extremely vulnerable countries are the track republic hungary poland and most of all the u.k. as i said this study blames its heavy reliance on exports the constant and you have the banking system fast growing major economies like russia though are also called high of a school i discussed this issue earlier with nick parsons from national straining bank and first i asked them whether countries can do anything to minimise those

various. countries outside the euro zone can indeed seek to protect themselves they can cut interest rates they can print money in the case of countries like switzerland they can effectively put a floor on their exchange rate so they can seek to protect themselves against disruptive capital flows they can seek to protect themselves against a collapsing trade but all this is really seeking to minimize damage rather than avoid it why do you think the breaks in the african countries are also high risk i looked at the reports when russia was ranked number fifty one hundred sixty nine in and that's really not what you classify is the highest risk so i think some of the spin that was put out was perhaps a little misleading an obit bowl comforting for you guys over there. european markets are doing they're still trading right now and basically there was seen a lot of optimism and that's on hopes of brussels will provide more stimulus in the

next coming week this week i'm told now we can see that the footsies out of. the south and the german dax is slowly heading that way if you have on the take a look at currencies the euro is reversing last week's drains against the u.s. dollar the ruble still makes a sour gain against the euro losing to the greenback and that was a good look at the russian markets will see that optimism and europe is trickling down to offer investors as well also we have crude prices which are again and of course helping investors there was that the arts yes has been over one percent and the my sense of a one the half percent it was a good look at some of the major movers on the my six which is naturally most of the blue chips i did better a couple of companies here in particular again almost one and a half percent and when all that output of its core metal nickel released the say is there a particular well it grew seven percent in the first half of the year when it comes to gas from it's going to almost one and a half percent as well first from the forbes magazine announced the company as the

world's most profitable in the world as i said the world that's in two thousand and eleven and also we know that gas man has agreed to supply russia's liquefied natural gas to vietnam and then we have to be gained in the almost soon a half percent this hour and that's after agreeing to jointly by a mobile operator and gold area all right let's move on now staying with russian companies that b.p. this time around for russian billionaires who own the half of a v.p. have voted against the. dollar dividend the representative said quote governments remain strong payment now is not prudent this comes on reports the russian callers will sell their stake in the company to roles that in which case b.p. will reverse is the surgeon to leave the consortium slightly confusing the lot of b.p.'s and. let's move on and take a look at us. because they just opened that assertion and we can see little games for both the dow and the last like investors are really has to make any big moves

out after today's surge on the market and also head over to the over the sun coming up in the of this week as well now if we continue on to luxury goods as was mentioned earlier shares in this industry are the fall in the financial turmoil around the world and of course we sent our very own kitty pilgrim to find out why that is. the global financial crisis is not a topic people shopping around this part of town particularly worried about i'm here in moscow on one of the most exclusive stories i'm talking fabulous people designer labels and of course found as well and this is the exact market savvy investors tapping into right now trying to make false cash out of people that love to spend it all a perfect example of this in recent years would be michael cools is a high end fashion house they've been producing clothes for over thirty years now based in hong kong announcing fragrances and accessories as well now. for the best

performing and they were placed at number one now they came out with their initial public offering on the fourteenth of december last year and it's now trading at twice that amount and as far as asian companies are concerned seven of them made up the top ten of the top. performance companies that's really is people in asia they're running more money and generally have more disposable income to go shopping and that's really in spite of slowing growth in china and the european debt crisis so it seems as sussan to use coming in and. out a luxury goods well at least for the life of the people places like this anyway. well i've been on the street a let me tell you. people who are already going to ask you think katie is high maintenance i do things on the to see the big smile in the end people that shop here are like people like. i think we should try to hook up with.

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